Never made a caster before! Help me make an Archaeologest for Reign of Winter


Advice


I recently got into a roll20 Reign of Winter, im caoming in after a Player was asked to leave

The party is lacking knowledges, with no one to bluff and diplomacy, and no Arcane caster.

I want to be a utility Bard that can be useful in non-combat situations

Starting level is level 8, I get 60% of the starting level 8 gold, but can buy anything I want.

I really dont know what I'm doing and would love any help for items, spells, feats and the like

I'm also no oposed to swapping to Dawnflow Dervish or another archetype.

Here is what I have so far

Grand Lodge

Does the party already have a Bard? If no, you want Inspire Courage and should consider sticking with regular Bard. If yes, proceed with Archaeologist.


no it doesn't have a bard already.

I'm happy to go with vanilla bard, but more than one line of text will be needed to convince me to compleatly change my build


An archaeologist or dawnflower dervish bards' luck/inspire courage affects only their own combat ability. Just about any other type of bard can buff others. That's why Dennis suggested that the lack of a bard in the party should push you towards other archetypes. Also, you suggested you wanted a bard focused on out of combat abilities; a self-only combat buff pushes you towards being on the front lines.

That said, an archaeologist is a good scout. They're better at being the rogue who scouts and deals with traps than being a knowledge guy - you want an archetype which saves skill points by keeping versatile perfomance (or the core bard) if you're going that direction.

A dawnflower dervish is intended for melee first and is not ideal for any of the roles you have named.


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An Archeologist Bard is more of a rouge replacement than a traditional bard. If that is what you are looking for then he is probably the best bet. Usually he focuses on buffing spells, not on spells being cast on others. This allows him to have a much lower CHA because he is not worried about saving throws. Your stats look fine now just make sure you get a CHA of 16 by 16th level.

Below is a sample build for rouge based Archeologist Bard.

Half-elf (elf-raised) bard (archaeologist) 8 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 32)
Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +6; Senses low-light vision; Perception +22
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Defense
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AC 22, touch 17, flat-footed 16 (+5 armor, +1 deflection, +6 Dex)
hp 51 (8d8+8)
Fort +9, Ref +18, Will +12; +2 vs. enchantments
Defensive Abilities evasion, trap sense +2, uncanny dodge; Immune sleep
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 scimitar +17/+12 (1d6+9/18-20)
Special Attacks archaeologist's luck 14 rounds/day (+2)
Bard (Archaeologist) Spells Known (CL 8th; concentration +10)
3rd (2/day)—dispel magic, glibness, haste
2nd (5/day)—blur, heroism, invisibility, tongues
1st (5/day)—disguise self, expeditious retreat, silent image (DC 13), vocal alteration[UM] (DC 13), windy escape[ARG]
0 (at will)—detect magic, mage hand, message, prestidigitation, read magic, sift[APG]
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 22, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 15
Base Atk +6; CMB +11; CMD 23

Feats Combat Reflexes, Dervish Dance[ISWG], Lingering Performance[APG], Weapon Finesse

Traits criminal, fate's favored

Skills Acrobatics +15, Appraise +11, Bluff +18, Climb +9, Diplomacy +15, Disable Device +25, Disguise +15, Escape Artist +15, Fly +11, Heal +5, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +15, Knowledge (engineering) +15, Knowledge (geography) +15, Knowledge (history) +15, Knowledge (local) +15, Knowledge (nature) +15, Knowledge (nobility) +15, Knowledge (planes) +15, Knowledge (religion) +15, Linguistics +11, Perception +22, Perform (act) +14, Perform (dance) +12, Ride +11, Sense Motive +9, Sleight of Hand +15, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +16, Survival +5, Swim +5, Use Magic Device +17;

Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Elven
SQ arcane training, bardic knowledge +4, clever explorer +4, elf blood, lore master 1/day, rogue talents (convincing lie, fast stealth)
Combat Gear mnemonic vestment; Other Gear +1 mithral chain shirt, +1 scimitar, belt of incredible dexterity +2, cloak of resistance +1, handy haversack, ring of protection +1, masterwork thieves' tools, 1,285 gp
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Special Abilities
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Arcane Training +1 CL for spell trigger/completion items for favored class, or use them as if 1st level.
Archaeologist's Luck +2 (14 rounds/day) (Ex) Gain Luck bonus to attack, damage, saves, and all skills.
Bardic Knowledge +4 (Ex) Add +4 to all knowledge skill checks.
Clever Explorer +4 (take 10 & magic traps) (Ex) Half time to use disable device. Can always take 10 & disarm magic traps.
Combat Reflexes (7 AoO/round) Can make extra attacks of opportunity/rd, and even when flat-footed.
Convincing Lie (6 days) (Ex) When a rogue with this talent lies, she creates fabrications so convincing that others treat them as truth. When a rogue with this talent successfully uses the Bluff skill to convince someone that what she is saying is true, if that individual is que
Dervish Dance Use Dex modifier instead of Str modifier with scimitar
Elf Blood Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.
Elven Immunities - Sleep You are immune to magic sleep effects.
Evasion (Ex) If you succeed at a Reflex save for half damage, you take none instead.
Fast Stealth (Ex) You may move at full speed while using the Stealth skill without penalty.
Fate's Favored Increase luck bonuses by 1.
Lingering Performance Bardic Performances last 2 rds after you stop concentrating.
Lore Master (1/day) (Ex) Can take 10 on any trained knowledge checks. Activate to take 20 as a standard action.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Mnemonic vestment (1/day) Spontaneous caster may cast spells from written sources using a spell slot. Writing is unharmed.
Trap Sense +2 (Ex) +2 bonus on reflex saves and AC against traps.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) Retain Dex bonus to AC when flat-footed.

Keep in mind that you have limited spells and with your CHA you want to avoid spells that allow saves. Bards get Heroism as a second level spell and should be your first 2nd level spell. It gives a +2 on all attacks, saves and skills, and stacks with Archeologist luck for some incredible bonuses. I went with Dervish Dance so you don’t have to spend all your wealth on a single magic item and still do decent damage. Cunning liar allows you to use your bluff even when you are not their and combined with Glibness means you can do some amazing things with it.

Invisibility combined with Expeditious Retreat and Fast stealth allows you to get just about anywhere you want. You will be moving at 60’ with a +36 to stealth.

Mnemonic vestment allows you to reuse bard scrolls by spending a spell slot. Pick up scrolls of spells you may occasionally need to cast, or situationally limited spells. Save your spell slots for spell that you could see yourself using every day.

When you have Archeologist Luck and Heroism going you basically get +5 to any d20 roll, which is including in the build.

Silver Crusade

There's a big difference between able to help in non-combat situations and not be able to help in combat. It's easy to do the former without doing the latter, but I've seen many characters do both. Just dedicate 25% of your build to being competent in combat, and put the rest into non-combat stuff. That way you always have something to contribute, in or out of combat.

The Archaeologist bard is a combat-oriented Bard, suitable to do everything a Rogue does, only better. It doesn't really sound like the right fit with your party. Perhaps you don't care about meshing well with the rest of the party, and just want to play what you want to play. That's OK.

If you do want to mesh well with the party, here are some things to consider:

Forge of Combat Metaphor:

Let's look at this through the lens of the The Forge of Combat metaphor, since it was written to answer just this sort of question. Using that metaphor these are the three Pathfinder combat roles:

Arm = Support & Healing
Hammer = Inflict HP damage
Anvil = Battlefield control

A balanced group wants to cover all three roles, with the balance playing Hammers. We don't know what this party has, but we know they do not have either a Bard or an Arcane Caster. Thus, they probably have lots of Hammers and an Arm (divine caster) or two, but almost certainly lack an Anvil.

The Forge of Combat wrote:
Groups without Anvils: Groups without anvils typically end up having an overabundance of hammers with one or two members playing the part of arms. These groups typically have fast, furious fights where the group takes a lot of damage. In these situations the arms often take on a reactive role providing healing and buffs as able while the hammers frantically try to end the encounter quickly. Depending on the nature of the hammers this often drains the arms very quickly of resources or forces the hammers into more and more defensive roles draining overall resources more as the group is not ending encounters efficiently enough.

This PC will probably fill the anvil role in combat. No one else can easily do so ...

* Given that the party has no arcane caster, this implies your party has lots of PCs who inflict HP damage. Bardsong (Inspire Courage) is often the best way to buff such characters. Normal bardsong will apply to you and your 5 friends and any companion & eidolons, giving at least 6x the bonus. Archaelogist luck applies only to you, not your friends, so only gives 2x the bonus. So all-party bardsong will contribute 3x more than will archaelogist luck, just on the numbers. Bardsong effectively raises the effective combat level of the entire team!

* An archaeologist bard is only a tiny bit more effective in combat than a regular bard. This tiny bit is heavily outweighed by giving Bardsong to the entire party. Note that archaeologist's luck stacks with regular bardsong, meaning an archaeologist fits really well in a team that already has a normal bard.

* As your team's only arcane caster you will have a lot of responsibility. It will be your job to control the battlefield, thus tilting the odds to give your team certain victory. This is the job of an Arcane Caster. Usually it's done by a Wizard/Witch/Sorcerer, but a Bard can also do this job. Typically this means casting spells like: Grease, Glitterdust, Create Pit, Summon Monster, Obscuring Mist, etc.

* When the battle does not lend itself to debuffing enemies, your fall back position is to buff your team. Best ways to buff your team: Inspire Courage, Heroism, Haste spell (bards get this!), other spells. Really, you want to do both, as your team will always want Bardsong bonuses. At 7th level starting Bardsong becomes a Move action, freeing up your Standard Action for spell casting.

* You don't have to, but it's perfectly possible to fill your primary roles, in and out of combat, and still be a credible threat in melee. One simple way to do this is to have Strength 14 and wield a longspear. This let's you do your thing on your turn, choose a smart tactical position, and then inflict some HP damage (and protect your squishy allies!) during enemy turns.


Wow, thats awesome guys thanks for the help!

Sorry it's been so long to respond, I just haven't had internet access

The character I was looking to make was a Rogue with spells, rather than a party buffer. The mnemonic vestment seems like a great addition to this character.

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